28th Apr 2014 07:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Meat retailer Crawshaw Group PLC Monday reported strong growth in profits and revenue in its last financial year, as it previously flagged, and also said its like-for-like sales growth had accelerated in the first 12 weeks of the current year.
Crawshaw reported a pretax profit of GBP984,789 for the 12 months to January 31, up from GBP250,864 a year earlier as revenue grew to GBP21.0 million, from GBP18.8 million.
In early March, the company had said it expected its full-year results to be further ahead of market expectations than it had previously expected after it saw particularly strong trading in January.
That strong trading has continued into the new year. The company said like-for-like sales were up 19% in the first 12 weeks of the current financial year, compared with the 11% growth it recorded for the whole of fiscal 2014 and the 1% growth in the first 12 weeks of that year. Its gross margin also remains strong, it added.
"Our customers are spending more with us and the improvements in trading performance are spread across most of our stores, giving me much confidence for the future," Chairman Richard Rose said in a statement.
"Given the general improvements in trading performance and the reduction in fit out costs the Board are confident that further controlled expansion of our existing shop model will be a key driver of future growth," Rose added.
The company recently opened a new store in Sheffield and Rose said he was encouraged by the initial performance of the shop.
Crawshaw had net cash of GBP1.0 million at the end of January, compared with nothing a year earlier. It will pay a final dividend of 0.43 pence, bringing the total dividend for the last year to 0.52 pence, up from 0.20 pence a year earlier.
Crawshaw Group shares were up 11.5% at 37.9 pence early Monday, one of the biggest gains on AIM.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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